Trapped
by Koken
Summary: Jon and Trip find themselves trapped on an away mission. Written for the Delphic Expanse Holiday Fic Exchange. Lemon, Slash.


First things First:

**Disclaimer:** I don't own these characters, I don't own Star Trek Enterprise, I don't own my house, I don't own my car, I don't own my pants. Where…are my pants?

**Warning: **Sexual Content…I repeat Sexual Content. Lemons and Limes are my kind of fruit, and if you ain't cool with that turn around now. This is not a fic for the kiddies! You really shouldn't be showing this to children, not right, they could get damaged! Then they would turn out like me, we all know we don't need no more me's runnin around this crazy world, now ain't that right!

**A/N:** This is a fill for a challenge written for the Delphic Expanse Holiday Fic Exchange. It is a wonderfully fun "secret santa" like exchange that thankfully had a deadline of Jan 1st (Yes today. I'm not a procrastinator just a really unexpected busy person this holiday season.) I had a lot of fun with this fic though and I really hope the person I wrote it for enjoys it even if it is coming in at the last possible moment!

The Prompt was: Trapped. Written for paulinem

Including: 1. Trip/Jon, slash but not necessarily smut, with a smattering of the rest of the crew 2. Action/Romance/suspense 3. An away mission

Not Permitted: 1. Demonising of regular cast – but if you include badies, then cool! 2. Unnecessary violence – though I don't mind a smattering 3. Cruelty

Anyways...I Digress, on with the fic.

**Trapped**

Trip Tucker loved away missions. He loved the fluttery feeling in his stomach that he would get right before the shuttle takes off. He loved the sight of a new environment, new people, and most of all new technology. He didn't mind the uncomfortable EV suits, or the extended stay in decon as long as he got to play with all the new things he could find. It felt like Christmas morning every single time.

Tucker attempted to dampen his hopes on this particular occasion. A ship floating in space without any crew to meet and a power signal so weak it suggested everything was off but maybe a nightlight somewhere. Travis, having seen similar cases in his days as a boomer, suspected it had been picked clean already. Trip didn't mind though; there was always something fun left behind. He probably would have hours of fun taking apart an alien nose hair clipper just to find out what it was. All in all that was just fine with him.

Malcolm moved to the hatch muscles easing smooth and efficient despite the bulky EV suit. Next out was Jon. The Captain was just as excited as Trip. In addition he had the authority to insist on going second. Malcolm was the kind of security officer that would always go first. T'Pol meet Trip's eyes, her cool brown irises questioning the overexcited blue. With a tilt of her head that was barely noticeably the engineer bounded up the ladder and out into the cold of space.

The Vulcan followed easily, the only one capable of moving with even a modicum of grace in an EV suit. Although she wasn't as forward with her excitement as the humans were, she could not deny her fascination, with the alien vessel. It was not in the Vulcan database and it was unlike anything she had ever studied before. The entire structure was almost invisible to the naked eye. It was only detected by the very slight power signature on the Enterprise's sensors. They didn't seem to be able to penetrate the hull. To the eye of the Starfleet ship it looked like a moving vat of empty space, or a moving piece of mirrored silver. The reflection was imperfect and distorted but accurate enough to fool a passing glance. The shape of the ship itself was sleek, powerful and large. Now that they stood on the hull of the shuttlepod the ship was as black as onyx and seemed to bounce sparkles of starlight back at them.

Jon couldn't help but smile when Trip's face split into an enchanting grin. He couldn't argue with the immense beauty of what was in front of him but he certainly couldn't deny that part of his enjoyment came from Trip's reaction. Trip was Jon's best friend and they had been through so much together, but still every time the southerner got that warm grin and a shine in his blue eyes it made Jon's stomach flop in an awfully satisfying way.

Malcolm fired the grappling hook, sticking it to the other craft and then tethering it onto the shuttle. They slid across, moving around the slick black surface on gravity boots to find anything resembling a hatch. The four moved in different directions searching slowly on the odd surface. Malcolm's crisp British accent cut through Trip's thoughts as he spoke. His deep voice announced through Trip's helmet crackling slightly across the open communication channel. "Nothing here."

Jon's voice answered across the com in the Commander's helmet. "Same here." Trip turned toward the direction he knew Jon was, part of him just looking for a little visual connection with the voice in his helmet but honestly he tried not to pay attention to the alarming frequency in which he looked to the Captain. He wrote off the behavior as being based on friendship, mentorship and that Jon was his Captain, but honestly it seemed to be getting more and more frequent of a behavior. It's not that anything had really changed between them. Trip suspected it had more to do with being shoved together on a ship with his best friend and, so far, secret crush.

It was so much easier when they only saw each other occasionally and Trip could go home and have some space. Out of sight was certainly not out of mind but it did help to calm his bodies reaction to the other man. When Trip had friends who didn't know Jon, when the Captain wasn't the topic of every conversation and his direct superior it was easier to push aside and think of him only at night, in his own bunk, when Trip was alone. Now Trip seemed to be thinking about it all the time. They spent a lot of time together as friends. They spent a lot of time together as professionals. They spend a lot of time together as the only family they really had on the ship. It had gotten to be that they rarely had time apart.

It's not that Trip minded spending time with Jon, he loved it. It just got harder not to watch his throat when he swallowed or his fingers as they ran through his hair. Even now, with the Captain twenty yards away in a bulky indefinable EV suit, Trip still imagined the form of his best friend underneath. He was getting pretty pathetic indeed. Trip pushed his eyes down and away from the Captain and blinked in surprise. There at his feet was a hatch.

Trip turned and looked down at the slick surface. If he weren't wearing plastic over his face he would have scrubbed his eyes in disbelief. That had NOT been there a second ago. Wait- had it, did he somehow miss it? Trip had been thinking of Jon when he had been looking down, maybe he was more distracted then he thought. "Found Something." Trip announced, shaking off the thoughts of Archer and bending down to take a closer look at the hatch. If he was distracted enough to miss the hatch he should probably try a little harder to push the inappropriate thoughts of Jon out of his mind.

T'Pol arrived first, her slender figure made bulky by the suit as she bent down to inspect the hatch. With her tricorder out the science officer searched methodically before Malcolm and the Captain joined them. Reed looked to the Captain for permission before unhooking the seal and dropping inside. It seemed to be equipped with an airlock. Sure enough after the four of them were in and the door sealed a rush of air left the room. It was pressurizing. Jon opened the inner door, his urge for exploration struggling to be patient behind his armory officer but generally failing.

Trip inspected the sleek black walls with what looked like alien symbols. It could be signs. Or control panels. Reaching forward Trip pressed one of the symbols. The pressure from his gloved fingers depressed into the smooth stone of the wall. As he slightly released the button he looked again at the smooth onyx. It was barely cracked where the buttons depressed into the wall. Small perfect nearly invisible hairline cracks in the blackness allowed the controls to move. Trip looked up. The symbols were set slightly higher than the average enterprise panels. Glancing up farther he looked at the high ceilings; a few feet taller than the average enterprise walkway. In Trip's mind, technology was always a function to assist biology and these panels seemed to be designed for a race taller than the average human, or at least one that varied in height more drastically. Trip was pulled from his investigation by T'Pol's calm voice.

"The atmosphere is 45.6% nitrogen, 22.3% carbon dioxide, 13.2% oxygen, the remainder is a mixture of argon, neon and helium." She moved her tricorder approaching the far side of the panel Trip was inspecting.

The silence was broken when Malcolm jumped, far quicker than Jon had time to process, the other man having drawn his weapon and moved in front of the Captain before the other man had time to look up. Trip's hands moved quickly, following the armory officers instinct as he drew his weapon and stepped next to the other man. T'Pol lifted her tricorder for readings, sharp eyes assessing the newly formed empty space. Jon's heart raced from the adrenaline of sudden movement but felt his training and his common sense tell him what his gut wanted to ignore. The space in front of them was an empty doorway.

It could have been opened when Trip hit a button. It could have been on a motion sensor when T'Pol walked in front of it. It could even have sensed lifesigns in the away team and opened automatically. Either way there was no apparent threat and Captain Jonathan Archer wasn't going to get any exploring done if everyone was jumping in front of him with phase pistols every time they saw their own shadows. The away team was still for a long moment as hearts slowed and the hall slowly began to glow in an oddly off white light.

Trip stepped forward, holstering his weapon as he glanced up at the hidden lighting and door controls. "I'm thinkin' that was automatic."

Malcolm followed steps slow but sure, as he checked down each side of the corridor. There was no one there and the room clear of life from T'Pol's careful nod. Whatever had happened shouldn't have spook them so thoroughly at least. Archer stepped forward looking both ways before swinging his light to the right. "Trip, your with me. Malcolm, T'Pol, go left. Let me know what you find, check in every fifteen minutes."

Reed looked as if he wanted to hesitate, but there really wasn't much he could do to stop the first in command from walking away with his second unprotected. Malcolm felt something thick sink down in his stomach. He just didn't have a good feeling about that pair. Trip was a magnet for trouble and Jon was the Captain. Everything in the militarily trained man screamed that he should be protecting them, and probably both of them. Ironically he felt like he didn't need to protect the strong, sharp as a tack woman beside him anymore than a tiger needs a bull dog for protection. He turned to the left never-the-less, cautiously following behind the glow of the Vulcan's tricorder.

Jon and Trip walked the long winding corridors, taking every first right turn they encountered in order to avoid getting lost. Well, Archer was taking every first right turn and he was pretty sure Trip was too busy bursting at the seams with excitement to notice. He didn't even seem to care that almost all his 'technological finds' did absolutely nothing. The engineer could be 'oooing' and 'aweing' over a toaster for all they knew. Either way he was having a blast and Jon couldn't help but smile. He liked Trip. No really, he liked the other man far more than was appropriate. Specifically Jon had an unnatural fondness for the Commander's ass. Whenever the engineer bent over to check something out, Jonathan Archer could not remember how a Captain should act and he looked. It was a terrible _terrible_ habit.

Even now through the thickness of the EV suits as Trip bent, the suit stretched and although it still covered him without revealing too much shape, Jon could remember what Trip looked like fresh out of the shower, or out of the water at the beach or running in those exercise shorts of his. Ugh. Jon was trying not to push Trip away. He kept him close despite the distraction because Charles Tucker III was the closest thing to family he had. Even if Trip only saw him as a brother or mentor or - Oh dear lord, Jon hoped not a father - he still enjoyed being with the other man far too much to make this awkward and uncomfortable. Not to mention they would be working together for years and he didn't want to mess with the best engineer in Starfleet.

Jon noticed Trip look up, mouth open and smiling with glee and some other thing he needed to tell the Captain right that minute. It was not unlike a kid with a new toy; priceless really. He noticed those joyfully bright blue eyes flash with panic before he had his arms full of blonde in and EV suit. Trip was tackling him. Wait…What? Why in heck would Trip be tackling him? The breath was knocked out of him for a moment as Trip rolled away and Jon got a full view of a bright shining knew granite grey colored slab. It was now sliced down and completely thought the corridor. More importantly it was right where Jon had been standing.

The engineer had seen it coming only because he had glanced up. There had been no sound, no shadow, no moment, no notice and not a blip on Jon's tricorder. He had been slightly distracted but as he checked over the device again It was apparent that there had not been anything to indicate a spontaneously developed wall. Glancing over at Trip the Captain made a quick determination of his status. He looked fine. The Ev suit looked fine. Trip was moving, bright blue eyes wide with confusion and concern, but overall unharmed.

Archer checked himself then. No broken bones, nothing unusual. "Lt. Reed?" When he was meet with silence the Captain spoke again, making sure the proper controls were depressed but there was no response. "T'Pol." Again there was no answer to the Captain's hail. "Enterprise, this is the Captain, can you read?"

Trip's blue eyes were a little wide with panic as he pulled himself up to look for the corridor that would lead back. His heart sunk into his stomach as he noticed another grey slab blocking the hallway. That was certainly not good. "Hoshi? Travis?" Trip tried. His com remained just as statically silent as the Captain's. "Malcolm. T'Pol. Can you read me?" Nothing again. Ever the optimist Trip reached out to the Captain. They would figure this out; it would just have to be together.

The Captain nodded, recognizing Trip's resolve. "Guess were on our own again this time Trip."

The southerner let out a soft chuckle, "Not like it's the first time Capt'n"

Jon let out a small laugh as Trip pulled him up, which was promptly cut off by the sound of fabric tearing, and air hissing. Archer turned quickly and Trip gaped at the small tear in his EV suit along the back edge. Reaching fast the engineer wrapped his arms around the Captain and grabbed a handful of the fabric in his bulky gloves. Twisting hard well above and below the leak he crumbled the suit in his gloves to isolate the fissure. Archer held his breath, heart rate fluttering in panic as his life held in the airtight seal of Trip's clumsily gloved fingers.

Trip looked at Jon through the touching glass of their helmets, knowing the icy panic in the Captain's features were only temporary and confident in the other man's ability to save them. He always did. Jon held onto Trip with one shoulder, checking his suits control panel. He calmed slowly as the panel said stable. His air was fine, almost as if he hadn't lost any at all.

Trip glanced down at Archer's wrist, tilting around the pressed together glass and shifting. "That say what I think it says Cap'in?"

Jon looked again, glancing over the numbers for the internal pressure, temperature, and air levels. All were normal. "What's wrong?" He asked the other man, slightly unsure of what was amiss.

"Says the outside of the suit is the same as the inside." Trip spoke with slight dismay, checking the readings again.

Jon looked again, this time at the outside environmental readout. Sure enough Trip was right. The exterior of his suit was reading just as livable as the inside of his suit. "A malfunction?" Jon asked, his engineer, the other man tightly up against him close enough to hear even without the radio inside their helmets.

"Quite an odd malfunction don't ya think?" Trip asked, his blonde eyebrow arching up in question. The other man pursed his thin lips and leaned to his left, reaching around the taller man with his body to see the read out on his arm still holding the Captain's suit closed.

Archer tried really hard not to think about the odd and awkward position they were currently in. Trip was bent over, legs spread for balance, with his arms wrapped directly around the Captain's waist. He actually liked the idea of the other man so close, accept for the EV suits gumming up the works. "a really odd malfunction if it's happening to both our suits at once." Trip added with a skeptical voice as he untangled himself.

Jon noted that despite Trip's discovery he was still holding on to the rip in Jon's suit. Undoubtedly there would be a small amount of leakage around Trip's grip anyway but it would minimize the immediate damage if the readings were incorrect. Archer looked down at Trip. "You think T'Pol and Malcolm could have adjusted the environmental controls while out of communication?"

Trip waited for a few moments, his thoughts slow and slightly anxious. "Doubtful Cap'in, it's been an awfully short amount of time since their last check in."

Jon hesitated as he looked at Trip. There was no way to tell if the environment was really safe. They were going to have to trust their instruments or find help. Either way they appeared to be trapped and all the stopgap measures in the world that Trip took with the back of Jon's suit wasn't going to repair the leak. They both knew it. "Oh this is ridiculous" Jon groaned, lifting his hand up and pushing the release on the EV suits helmet.

Honestly Jon had braced himself for the chocking feeling of not enough oxygen or the tightness of sudden pressure change. His hand still poised at the edge of the popped up glass, ready to hold his breath and snap the glass down when the instruments proved incorrect. Neither horrible feeling struck him. Jon carefully breathed. The air was cool and crisp but smelled almost clinically created and preserved similar to what was found in their suits.

Trip watched Jon take in air and not collapse in his arms. Only then did the southerner finally breathe again. In a burst of energy that broke the silence Trip let go of the Captain's suit and shoved him in a mixture of anger and relief. "Don't ever do that again!"

Jon laughed slightly pulling away as he yanked off the uncomfortable helmet. "I'll try not to Trip." Thinking carefully the Captain looked at the smooth solid walls in contemplation. "That was quite the lucky break…don't you think?"

Trip gulped, his hands shaking just slightly. He tried to push that away. He could have lost Jon…twice in about ten minutes and he wouldn't have been able to do much about it. Jon was his best friend. Jon was his Captain. Jon was his family. Jon was everything. Trip would take a bullet for him but he wasn't going to be able to help him now even though he wanted to. Trip turned around looking at the grey solid wall, the surface slightly shinning like all the other corridors in the entire ship. They needed to find a way out before this ship decided to jerk them around some more.

The engineer glanced over at the Captain before removing his helmet and gloves to be less encumbered as he touched the walls. There was something familiar about the texture of the grey material. It was vaguely different than the onyx, even more so than color. He felt around for a while examining the unblemished surface. There was nothing. No seam, no crack, not access for him to exploit.

Turning Trip saw that Jon was doing the same. Archer's hands moved ungloved against the walls searching for a weakness. He also came up empty. He wasn't really sure how long they searched. Trip did the whole room three times. Jon double checked and then tried the communicator again. There was no response from the other members of the away team as well as Enterprise herself. Sometimes silence can be deafening, and at that moment there was far too much silence. Not just over the radio either. The ship didn't seem to be powered or running and yet the strangely off putting light still dimly illuminated their closed off section of hallway. There was no hum from the machinery or the power running through the walls. There was nothing.

Trip slid down against the wall struggling with the surge of frustrated energy inside him. They were trapped and there wasn't anything he could do. He'd been looking at every wall and every panel in this damned black hole of a ship and nothing could help them. What kind of an engineer was he that he was utterly useless in a box that should be his specialty? He ripped at his suit struggling and yanking and kicking at the offensive orange until it came off and thumped across the small space.

Jon watched silently as Trip struggled for air against the tight anger in his throat. It was understandably frustrating. The other man slid off his suit slowly and calmly, sitting down next to Trip leaning against the cool wall and Trip's warmth. "Enterprise will figure out we're missing." He told the southerner, eyes moving down the tight grey catsuit. Well, maybe taking off the EV suits wasn't such a good idea.

Trip on the other hand wasn't paying attention to Jon yet. He was focused on the problem. Archer watched Trip's face change in a blink of an eye. Slowly the other man stood and stared straight up.

Silence reigned in the small space, the echo of their breath rushing through their ears for long moments. "There is ventilation…" Trip said out loud, his voice loud in the echoing silence.

Archer moved toward the grey walls, touching one's slightly dull surface. Wait, dull? Weren't they shinny before? "So they want us alive. Whoever trapped us in here gave us air and is refreshing it."

"Yeah." Trip answered walking to the closest EV suit and picking up his tricorder. He calculated the size of the room and the air and took the readings of the level of change in the air. It was the same, exactly the same despite two grown men breathing out carbon dioxide. "We should be slowly but steadily using up our air, especially if this room is sealed. It ain't. We got the same amount of air as when we started, but I don't see anywhere the air could be coming in. I also" Trip paused for a second, not sure if he should really be voicing such an inconceivable idea quite yet. But this was Jon, "…I think the room is changing."

Jon blinked looking up. He stared. He stared and stared at the top of the room trying to see what Trip had. His gut told him the space was different but he couldn't explain why. Staring up however he remembered noticing the walls seemed duller. Maybe he wasn't mistaken, maybe they had changed finish texture in the last few minutes. "The ceiling is lower." Jon realized, looking at the walls and the floor with a sudden new sense of understanding. Was the whole room getting smaller?

Trip stood, moving to the black side walls, examining the corners. Once sharp ninety degree angles where the grey and black meet were melting together. Muted grey faded into the black and stretching into a rounded shape like molding plastic. "The walls are changing…getting smaller."

Jon could see Trip searching with quick efficient fingers against the perfectly smooth walls for some way to make this stop, to change their fate or do something- anything. It was very apparent the two of them were trapped, but Tucker wasn't ready to give up.

There was long silence, Jon sitting on one end of the room- Trip on the other, while they brainstormed ways to get out of the room. There was very little they could do. No tools, no readings, no progress, no communication from the outside.

"This sucks" Trip muttered, voice cutting through the silence and the tension enough to leave both men chuckling.

"Well at least we're not in sweltering heat dodging live fire." Jon answered with a smirk and a chuckle.

Trip nodded, rolling his expressive blue eyes that sparkled with mirth at the memory, "Yeah, there could be broken bones or torture involved."

Jon smiled a little looking back at his best friend. Despite leaning against opposite walls it was difficult to perceive the changes in the room. They happened soundlessly as if they had always been there. They were closer to one another now though. Certainly they were closer than when they fist sat down as now their feet were almost touching. Jon watched Trip make a similar connection. What exactly could they do? The room was shrinking. How were they to know how far it would shrink? Archer set out to distract the southerner, perhaps not as obviously as he once had on the desert planet but it would do.

Trip wasn't an idiot, and he wasn't suffering from heat stroke this time either. Although he played along he couldn't ignore when the room had shrunk to a tube shape that forced both Trip and Jon's legs to be tangled together. The walls were a soft dull nondescript grey now and the air seemed recycled. "Cap'in."

Archer stopped his rambling, licking his lips and meeting Trips eyes. "Yeah"

"How small do you think this room is going to get?" Tucker asked, his voice a little soft.

"I don't know." Jon answered, chewing his lips a little but at the utter helplessness in his stomach. "but I'd rather be stuck in here with you than anyone else."

The Captain watched a sweet red blush bloom slightly on the Commander's cheeks, spreading over the surface of his flesh and then dismissed quickly. "Aw, come on now, your just sayin' that."

Jon let out a little laugh reaching down and working his fingers over the grey suiting stretched over his knee. "No, not just saying that." He added a little smile on his face. That wasn't a lie or an exaggeration by any means. If he was stranded on a desert island he would choose Trip any day. "Do you remember that little tent? In Australia?"

Somewhere in his head Trip knew Jon was just trying to distract him again but he couldn't help falling into old patterns. "Oh please, of course I do!"

"It was so small," He recalled with a smirk "and you were such a little baby."

"I was NOT" Trip defended again, barely interrupting the flow of Jon's recollection.

"Yet through the entire time despite all that complaining about snake meat and heat and bugs you didn't get on my nerves." Jon smiles at the Southerner. "It was always so fun when you complained. Not blaming me for not being able to fix it, just shared…"

"Misery?" Trip supplied earning a laugh from the other man. Trip groaned slightly rolling his eyes up to the ceiling. "I'm only not throwin' a fit right now cause there ain't a snake in sight, I tell you what." The southerner grumbled letting his accent get thicker as he idly jockeyed with Jon's feet playfully.

Archer immediately regretted the line of conversation. He was hungry. He had no way of telling how long they had been in there without food or water. The Captain racked his brain for something else to talk about.

"Hey Jon?" Trip asked, his voice quite. There was also something fragile in it that caught Archer's attention. It was just a moment of something slightly weak, like the other man had already given up. "We're gonna die in here aren't we?"

Jon wanted to say no. He wanted to jump up and start a long ramble about how Enterprise was going to find them and everything was going to be okay. They weren't going to die. They would be found and they would be rescued. He couldn't though. The words were stuck in his throat and as he sat there looking at his best friend, usually so bright with confidence, sit defeated in a solid grey shrinking cylinder with no options. Jon didn't have a clue what to do. Yet somehow he couldn't bring himself to lie.

He didn't have to say anything it turned out. Before Jon could open his mouth he had a lap full of the young engineer. Hot blood rushed under skin taught grey catsuits pressed together tightly as the blonde's tongue brushed against the Captain's lips. Warm wet and sweet they moved together until Jon's mouth fell open, his knees falling open and his hands moving up to cradle the other man's hips.

Trip tasted like sun kissed oranges and hot honey all at the same time, his body flush and warm with Jon's quickly turning hot as those long expert fingers buried into Jon's short hair and guided the other man's mouth to open wider for him.

Jon was lost- utterly and completely- in the warm pliant mouth of the other man. He felt his heart pound in the sudden rush of lust and excitement. How many times had he fantasized about the younger man this way? How many times had he lay in bed stroking himself to this very though? How many times had he come thinking of that tongue pleasuring him- and oh god what a tongue. Jon could never have properly imagined the warm wet muscle as it wiggled inside his mouth, coaxing, stroking, caressing, melting Jon's will. For the briefest second the Captain wondered if the Engineer was as good with his hands as he was with his tongue.

All thoughts however were quickly obliterated as the younger man dropped his hips and ground roughly. Hot hard flesh rubbed against hot hard flesh separated by nothing but the barest hint of grey spandex. It was amazing. Jon felt like he could come right there in that moment. His body shaking slightly with the pressure of the other man rubbing down on him and the self control it too not to wet his uniform. Stroke for stroke Jon could imagine Trip riding him and with each rock he could be sinking the Captain deep into his best friend.

Even if he had wanted to Jonathan Archer would not be able to stop the roll of his hips upward into the other man's lap, heat against heat simply too enticing. He let his hands wander, rooting one in Trip's soft blonde hair and the other on the man's round firm ass. So many fantasies were coming true for the Captain in one single moment he thought he might pass out. Indeed he did feel dizzy from the kiss and lack of oxygen.

Jon returned to his wits as quickly as he could, sliding warm fingers on either side of Trip's face pulling him back and gasping for air as he stared into deep blue heated eyes. "Trip. Wait…"

The engineer did not listen. Trip's heart was pounding so loud he could barely hear Jon's words and he didn't want to. From the moment he felt Jon's answering erection he had the confidence to know that his best friend wanted him right here, right now. Trip didn't want to risk losing the momentum. That meant he wasn't stopping. No way in hell would he die not knowing what it felt like to feel Jon, even if he only got to do it this once. "I love you." Trip spit out, voice cracked with disuse and heat as he bent down to kiss his Captain again.

Jon's eyes got wide as saucers, his face bright with surprise, but something over Trip's shoulder was the focus of his attention. The man beneath him pushed up, sliding the engineer to the floor so quickly it took the southerner a few seconds to scramble his legs underneath himself. He felt like jelly at the sudden rejection but it didn't last long.

Trip's attention was immediately capture by something he did not imagine. The small grey cylinder had not continued shrinking. On the contrary it had changed. The room was now something both men would recognize any day of the year and also use multiple times on any given day. The turbolift on the Enterprise. Archer reached out to the flat black panel on the wall, feeling it slowly as the buttons pushed their way out slowly into his finger pads. The room was almost done. Archer tried the pressing button but nothing happened.

Trip stared at Jon with wide eyes. "It's recreating the enterprise…" Archer opened his mouth to ask Trip if he could do anything now but he didn't have to say a word. Trip was already pulling manual releases and looking through the all too familiar circuitry of the turbo lift. "It looks standard Cap'in." he said voice tightly restraining his excitement.

"Then let's get this door open." Jon answered, moving down next to the Commander.

Trip worked quickly, his deft fingers giving way to the hiss of the turbolift door opening in a rush of air. He looked up, only to find the solid grey of the turbolift shaft staring back at them. "Not a problem Cap'in" he remarked again, setting to work on the inside of the control panel's central processing unit. The doors shut again with a hiss and without further delay there was a long woosh sound of the turbolift moving.

"Where are we going?" Jon asked, voice securely back in the mode of the Captain and Starfleet Commander. There was no trace of the lust Trip heard a few minutes ago or the desperation that had the Captain groping his engineer's shapely ass.

"The Bridge" Tucker responded, pushing the panel back into place and pulling himself back up. "At least what would be the Bridge if we were on the real Enterprise."

When the turbolift doors opened both officers kept their hands on their phase pistols just in case. Neither however felt quite the sense of dread they had before. Whatever had done this wasn't trying to kill them. It was trying to communicate with them. Killing them would have been far too easy. Why else would they go through all of this trouble?

Jon and Trip walked slowly into a perfect replica of Enterprise NX-01 Bridge. Although the stations were unmanned they were completely equipped with buttons, chairs, readouts and even a full viewscreen. Trip couldn't help but notice the outside of the alien craft turned Starfleet vessel was the Enterprise glowing in space floating as if just infront of them. Jon stepped forward, walking easily toward the two figures in Star Fleet Uniforms and two in tight grey EV catsuits in the center of the room. The four figures turned to look at the new arrivals and Jon immediately recognized them all; Malcolm, T'Pol, Hoshi and …Hoshi?

The Hoshi to the left nodded her head down casually as she faced the Captain and the Engineer. "I must inform you that I am not Ensign Hoshi Sato. It has been brought to my attention that in your culture the impersonation of a Starfleet officer is against regulation and could be considered an act of aggression." Her voice was Hoshi's, but her mannerisms seemed more like T'Pol. She was flatly spoken, her inflection perfect and somehow eerie without the natural pause of human dialect. She stood awkwardly as well, her body mimicking that of a humans and although outwardly she was designed for the motion it was similar to a doe just learning how legs should work.

Jon pushed down his surprise and walked forward, ever the diplomat extending his hand in greeting. "I'm Captain Jonathan Archer of the Enterprise. Pleased to meet you."

Trip was a little less nonchalant. It was difficult for him, after making a complete fool of himself with the Captain and his best friend. He was in a daze when he heard Malcolm explain how he'd been separated from T'Pol and trapped in the mess hall, waiting for the tables, chairs and most importantly the door to form before he could leave and make his way to the Bridge. T'Pol had been sectioned out in a hallway, one that wrapped and split like a long piece of spaghetti as it shaped into most of the hallways of the saucer section. T'Pol was left walking along an external oddly shaped grey tunnel until doors formed where she also made her way to the Bridge.

Trip took a seat slowly on the Captain's chair, his mind wrapping around the pure technological power it would take for fully malleable ships. "You restructured your…entire ship… to copy the enterprise in order to find a way to communicate?" He asked the Artificial Hoshi.

Her wide almond eyes sparkled at him, as if this question was humorous. "Not just our ship Mr. Tucker. I altered my entire person in order to speak with you. Our goal here is to explore new races." She seemed to have a little difficulty conveying what she wished to say in the proper English terms. She paused several times, seeming to access information from a databank before continuing.

Trip got a whirlwind tour and explanation of the alien technology, all of it far over his head and there was little chance such an advance race would be interested in passing on such information to people they viewed to be as intelligent as children. Never the less, Trip was fascinated by the sheer possibility of the dynamic physics. Knowing it was possible, through seeing and experiencing it, made it all the more inspiring for study.

Their encounter with the changing ship spurred a new research project for engineering and most likely Starfleet research and development but first was the report and initial research for the proof of scientific possibilities. Trip let himself focus on that, nose buried in the padd with T'Pol and in the science lab for most of the next week. He'd missed sports night with Jon. He'd sent Hess for the ship walk with the Captain and he'd avoided having dinner with the man who was as close as any brother. But when on the Bridge Archer causally asked him to stop by his quarters after his shift he really couldn't avoid it.

Trip shifted uncomfortably, prepared to hide behind the padd in his hand, behind his research and his busy schedule and most importantly ignore everything that he had done when he thought that they were going to die.

Jon answered the tone of his cabin door with his usual distracted voice. "Come." And sure enough when Trip entered Archer was sitting at his desk tapping quickly through some options on the screen before he finished his task.

"You wanted to see me Cap'in? If your busy I can come back another time." Trip asked, trying to keep the desperate hope for more time before facing mortification from seeping into his voice.

"Don't be silly Trip, take a seat and I'll be with you in just a sec." Jon said waiving the younger man down as he continued shuffling through screens.

The engineer sat watching Archer's easy posture. His long legs were slightly spread, relaxed in his chair, his arms loose. He felt confident that Jon wasn't nervous and he had no reason to be. Surely he wouldn't be angry about a few days not seeing one another. It's not like any of those things were really, absolutely, necessary. Mostly it was just things they liked to do together. Besides didn't it seem better to keep their distance? Jon probably felt just as uncomfortable about the whole thing as Trip did.

Jon smiled shutting down his screen and turning to the blonde. "Can I get you anything? Beer?"

Trip shook his head pushing up. "No Thanks, I should really get back to the report on fluid ship structures, what can I do for you?"

Jon nodded he seemed to shift a little. Trip guessed that hadn't been what he wanted as an answer. Standing the other man moved forward his soft green hazel eyes boring into Trip's light blue ones. "Just thought you should know that… I love you too." Trip was silent for a long moment, breath caught in his throat so tight he didn't dare breath. "You said it, back on the other ship, when we were trapped and I didn't have a chance to say it back. I'm in love with you and I just thought I should let you know. So if you want take it back, fine, we'll go back to the way we were. If don't want to take it back –"

Trip couldn't let him finish, he was on his feet, lips crushing into Jon's again, hands tangled in his short hair and body flush with the Captain's. Assumedly that would mean Trip didn't want to take it back.

Jon's mouth was firm and tender. Archer was much more in control than Trip's frantic attempt to kiss him in the turbolift, but no less hot. Trip calmed enough to pull away, groaning as Jon nibbled the engineer's lips as he tried to take them away. Breathing roughly Trip looked up into Jon's bright green eyes, smirking at the feel of two wide warm palms spread over his ass. Trip's soft voice floated over the sound of panting breath. "I want to do that again."

Jon nodded with a soft smirk, sliding his hot eyes down Trip's lips to the column of skin leading from his ear to his shirt collar. "I want to do more…" the older man whispered, soft lips touching Trip's neck delicately enough to raise gooseflesh all over the engineer's body.

"That could be arranged." Trip whispered letting his eyes fall shut and enjoying the way Jon's hands felt on him, steering him toward the bed. The southerner felt the cool air of the cabin brush against his skin as the other man undressed him. Slow but steady he returned the favor trading kisses on the other man's stubble chin with licks down his smooth collar bone.

Eventually they were both naked, crawling down over Jon's smooth rich red sheets. Trip panted softly as Jon wrapped his large warm fingers around him and began to pump slowly. The engineer groaned deep and hallow from his chest, body shuddering slightly. "Cap'in if you keep that up I'm not gonna last very long."

Jon smirked sliding his other hand around to caress the blonde's smooth ass. "That would be the idea Commander." The playful way Jon said his rank made Trip blush, as well as the delicate brush of Jon's fingertip over the pucker of his ass. Not to be outdone the younger man reached and wrapped his hand around Archers weeping length. They both pumped painfully slowly but neither of them could hold on for very long. Trip loved the feeling of Jon's soft touch, caresses that were firm and slow, pulling him with a rush of sensation on each stroke. The man's hand was tight, and perfect when combined with the heat of the Captain's body and the breath of the other man on his skin. It was so easy to get lost in the ocean of warm peaceful sensation that still built overwhelming tension in the base of Trip's spine.

It was a few minutes of grunting, sweating and desperate struggles not to come before Trip lost control first. The bare tip of Jon's pointer finger had dipped slightly in to the tight pucker of Trip's ass and the southerner saw lights. He jerked in the other man's arm's shuddering as he spilled hot liquid onto Jon's well formed abs. Archer didn't even bother to wait until Trip was finished, he let himself go into Trip's hand. Thick sprays of white coated the tightly twitching fingers as they both lay still in the aftermath of what just happened. Trip opened his eyes, panting slowly as he lifted up his soiled hand. He let his tongue dart out licking a trail of warm sticky fluid and smirking at Jon's groan.

"Sorry that wasn't longer." Jon whispered, suddenly his voice took on a deep smoky flavor, eyes fixed on the younger man's pink tongue.

Trip laughed still slightly breathless. "No need to apologize. Just promise we can do it again."

Jon nodded ignoring the mess as he lay his naked body flush against Trip's. "Anytime you want."

Tucker angled his head up, letting the Captain kiss him deep and full on the mouth. The thorough treatment leading him to being slightly distracted as Jon pulled himself out of bed on wobbly legs. For a split second Trip found himself rushing through the last few moments. Was Jon leaving? Was this over? Was this just going to just be a ship booty call kinda thing? Did he want friends with benefits? That isn't what Trip wanted. Trip loved Jon. He knew that now more than ever now that he had spoken it allowed. Could he possibly have been unclear?

Jon returned with a small damp warm washcloth and a clean stomach. "You alright?" He asked the engineer in a smooth concerned voice.

Trip just nodded as the Captain bent down and cleaned off Trip's hand thigh and spent length. "Yeah…"

Jon dropped the cloth aside and slipped under the covers pulling Trip close to him. "Good. You looked a little scared there for a moment. Wanna tell me about it?"

Trip let himself smile softly to himself. Jon knew him particularly well. "Just unsure how long you wanted me to stay…"

Jon let out a chuckle, he knew just how many times poor Trip has watched someone he wanted walk away when he wanted more. Jon was Trip's best friend. He knew more than anyone how much Trip wanted something real and not a night here or there. Jon tenderly stroked the blonde's face, smiling gently in reassurance, "For as long as I can keep you trapped."

**Thanks for Reading, Please Review and Happy Holidays paulinem!  
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-Koken


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